Luminaires for roadway lighting in highway and/or residential areas are, of course, well-known. Such luminaires are generally mounted on a pole or the like at one side of the roadway. The pole may be set back from the roadway with the luminaire elevated adjacent one side of the roadway. The luminaire must transmit beams in each longitudinal direction for a predetermined finite distance calculated to overlap slightly with the beams of the adjacent luminaires on both sides.
On the side facing the roadway or street, the luminaire must fill the space laterally across the street between the longitudinally directed beams. On the back side (or house side in residential areas), the illumination should be muted to limit the intensity of light reaching any house positioned behind the luminaire.
For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,682 to Rex issued Feb. 9, 1971 in which a luminaire for roadway lighting is shown. In this patent, the luminaire is inclined upwardly in a plane transverse to the roadway. The reflector is an ovate, bowl-shaped one with an ovate bowl-shaped refractor clamped to it.